White Faux Calligraphy Tutorial

Creating faux calligraphy is great for beginners who are intimidated by a dip pen, and also for seasoned calligraphers who want to write on irregular surfaces. Try out this fun and easy tutorial to create some of your own faux calligraphy today!

Those of you who have been reading the TPK blog for a while may remember my “Cheating Calligraphy” tutorial from last year. I’d like to do a little re-vamp in this blog post — and also start referring to it as “Faux Calligraphy” {the French make everything sound nicer}!
I just made a lovely hand-written wedding suite predominantly featuring white ink for an NYC couple . While I used a traditional calligraphy pen to make this suite, I want to share an alternative that also renders opaque white results. To make white faux calligraphy, you don’t have to know how to use a dip pen and nibs. Not only that, but making faux calligraphy will help you in creating real calligraphy.

I commenced my calligraphy career in 2011 by making faux calligraphy. Believe it or not, I even sold art pieces that featured faux calligraphy. It has a nice, round “feel” to it. The main advantage, by far, of creating faux calligraphy is the advantage it will give you in creating “real” calligraphy. Basically, as you create faux calligraphy, you begin to gain an understanding of what the downstrokes of a letter are. As you create real calligraphy later, then, you’ll know to apply more pressure as you create those downstrokes to get a nice, fat line.

Faux calligraphy can also be used on surfaces that aren’t conducive to real calligraphy. For example, I wouldn’t attempt making real calligraphy on wood because it would wreak havoc on my nibs. Effectively, when I create baby shower clothespins, I use faux calligraphy.

I also noticed that Molly Suber Thorpe uses faux calligraphy to make chalk place cards in her book Modern Calligraphy. In short, faux calligraphy is a good bit of knowledge to have in your lettering artillery … and it couldn’t be easier. You begin by writing out your word or phrase in pencil, like this:

{I have chosen “Je te plumerai”, which in French means, “I am going to [pluck out your feathers].” All that French language training, and this is what I use it for!}

Next, go over your pencil word or phrase with a Sakura Gellyroll white pen. If you want to make black cheating calligraphy, I recommend using a Pilot G2 gel pen.

Now, you’re going to determine where the downstrokes are and create a little space to fill in. What do I mean by downstrokes? Essentially: the parts of the letter that you drag your pen down to make. You can draw little letters in the air to determine where the downstrokes are. On “j”, for example, I would have swooped up at a 20 degree angle on the first line, then pulled my pen down {that’s a downstroke}, then pushed the pen up at a 45 degree angle, then pulled sharply down to make the trunk, then pulled my pen up at a 45 degree angle. Leave the “upstrokes” {the lines your pen had to go up to make} alone; just draw lines parallel to the downstrokes, like so:

{Here’s a close-up:}

Once you’ve made these lines, simply fill them in, wait a while to erase your pencil guidelines, and voilà! You’ve got faux calligraphy.

It’s a snowy night in Boulder, which means it’s a wonderful time to stay in and create some calligraphy! Snow or not, enjoy trying out the technique outlined in this tutorial.

Any specific type of white paint marker? I’m doing wedding chalkboards and wood signs. Something that I could erase for minor screw-ups would be ideal, but we’re traveling with these boards, so a paint pen might be best so theres no chance of it washing off. My biggest issue with paint pens is ones that tend to leak and create a puddle of paint.

Hi there! I am doing my own invitations and return envelopes and have not done calligraphy before but would like to start. Would I be giving myself a headache to try and make 240 invites and returns with the faux style?

I would definitely digitize what you can; you could make a return address stamp as long as you have a scanner. 🙂 As far as faux calligraphy on 240 invitations, it will definitely take a while (but it would also take a long time with dip pen calligraphy)! I’d try to get 10-15 envelopes done per day, and that way you’d be done in about a month. It is do-able, definitely; but if it’s in the budget, it might be worth it to hire a calligrapher (there are a lot of calligraphers who can be found on Etsy for reasonable prices)! That would save you a lot of time!

One question that I haven’t been able to figure out anywhere — how do you decide on what side to draw the parallel lines for downstrokes? Are they usually to the left? is it just wherever you feel? I’m finding that just guessing makes things look a bit unbalanced.

I’m reading through ALL of your tutorials. You are really good at tutorials! What kind of white pen do you use? I’ve had such a hard time finding white pens that work well. I’d also be curious if you have suggestions for opaque white markers that you could use on say brown kraft paper (or recycled grocery bags).

Thank you! I have a tendency to explain everything to death, so that really helps when writing them. I use Sakura Gelly Roll white pens … and I’m not sure about opaque white markers! If I need to write large, I usually just paint the text on with acrylic paint. 🙂 You could use the same faux calligraphy technique with a paint brush. I hope this helps!

This is beautiful! I used your Cheating Calligraphy tutorial for some Christmas cards last year and I had so much fun that I try to inject this Faux Calligraphy style in a lot of what I do because I just love it so much!
Thank you so much for posting this re-vamp! I am loving the white-on-black! I hope to play with some color variations soon 🙂

Cheating calligraphy is a lot of fun! I love “real” calligraphy; but sometimes I just don’t want to make a mess, or can’t easily write on a surface … or just want that nice effect of faux calligraphy. You really can do it with anything! Chalk, crayons … whatever. I’m so glad you like it! Blog about your faux calligraphy adventures if you do experiment with some color variations; I’d love to see what you come up with!

If calligraphy is beautiful writing, this method and result looks as beautiful as “real” calligraphy? Or is it that calligraphy is only defined by the pen? In Asia, they use a brush, but it’s not considered faux.

That’s a good question! I suppose I would consider calligraphy that is created with a specialized instrument — so, a dip pen; or, as you pointed out, a brush in Asia — “real” calligraphy; and calligraphy created with a non-specialized instrument (a regular pen) “faux” calligraphy. Ultimately, though, it is all calligraphy as lovely handwriting. But I have to call this something to differentiate it from calligraphy created with a specialized instrument. 🙂

On a note completely unrelated to your comment, I visited your blog and noticed you live in Brooklyn. I am so jealous. We absolutely loved Brooklyn when we visited NYC in September … all of the houses were adorable — very neat area! Have you tried Tutt Café? It’s on Hicks Street … lovely outdoor seating when the weather is cooperating. If you like Middle Eastern food and you haven’t gone, try it!

Hopefully I answered your question; you make an excellent point about it being calligraphy despite it not being calligraphy (how’s that for a catch-22?). Thanks so much for reading!